I know, I've done a horrible job of keeping up with this blog lately. Oh well. To summarize: I'm 8-months pregnant now (35 weeks) and doing fine, heading down the home stretch and looking forward to having kidlet on the outside rather than on the inside. I have three weeks of work left and then I'll be on maternity leave. That about sums it up.
So let's talk about hose. No, not the garden variety, I'm talking about maternity support hose—you haven't lived until you've worn them. One thing I've dealt with for about half the pregnancy is very swollen ankles and feet. The technical term is edema, otherwise known that-which-makes-your-feet-look-like-tubers. I was advised by my doctor a while ago to start wearing support hose to help with it, and she suggested I just wear knee-highs since that's all I really needed. Unfortunately, the knee-highs made my knees look like grapefruits because they were tight right below my knees. At my appointment today the doctor suggested I switch to full maternity support hose since the knee-highs may have been doing more bad than good. Support hose are actually a medical item worthy of a prescription, which is a good thing since maternity support hose in particular cost a small fortune. ($92 per pair, if anyone is interested.) Thankfully, my insurance covers them so we paid much less than that at the medical supply store where we got them.
I'm not a huge fan of pantyhose, anyway, and rarely wear them except occasionally in the winter with a nice dress for church. Support hose are a whole different matter: Regular pantyhose stretch; support hose don't. I'd been having a hard time getting the knee-highs on lately but I usually managed on my own. When we got home with the full maternity hose today there was no way I could get them on by myself, and it still took 20 minutes with hubby's help. Not fun at all. I don't know if I'd be able to get them on by myself without being 8-months pregnant and now I'm thinking it's probably never going to be an option. I'm supposed to wear them all day every day until delivery, so that means on days hubby works opening shift we may both have to get up extra early so he can help me get them on. (I don't have to sleep in them, thankfully.) And did I mention they itch? Yeah, not surprisingly they itch some.
I'm thankful I only have to wear them for a few weeks at this point and not a few months, but that's as close to the bright side of things I'm gonna get. And, in reality, I am thankful that this is really just another pregnancy annoyance I have to deal with and not something ultimately significant that affects the baby. God willing it'll stay that way for the remainder of the pregnancy and we'll have a healthy baby boy in due time.
Pantyhose of any variety are a pain to deal with. The only upside to the dozens of pairs that I seem to ruin with a ring or fingernail is that I cut them up and use strands of nylon to tie my tomato plants to their stakes so they won't lay on the ground.
ReplyDeleteReading this reminded me of the first pair of Spanx that I bought. I LOVE them, but getting them on was such an ordeal. I had already put on makeup and had about sweated it all off by the time I got in them!
So glad that, other than the edema, you are doing well. Praying that you have a safe and easy delivery!
you are moving right along! blessings to you! i suffered from edema with my first pregnancy. i wore knee high support hose. blech, but they really did help. plus that hubby preached to me on their benefits, so i bit the bullet and wore them. worth it now! good luck with everything!!!
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